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The Proposed Generalization of the Minorities Régime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Howard B. Calderwood
Howard B. Calderwood
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

The racial policy of the present German government has created a new interest in the problem of protection of minorities. Governments hitherto apathetic in regard to the problem were aroused by the Bernheim petition to the League in the spring of 1933 complaining of the discriminatory character of legislation in violation of the German-Polish convention of 1922. They were also compelled to give attention to the renewed demand of the minorities states for a treaty binding all members of the League to respect the rights of their minorities. States like Italy and France, with large sections of their territory populated almost entirely by German-speaking people who are deeply conscious of their cultural differences with the majority of the state's population, would be expected to show considerable interest in the demand of the minorities states. Other states in whose territory reside many people differing in race, language, or religion from the majority of the population would also necessarily be concerned. The minorities régime and some of the problems created by it have been described in several publications. It is the purpose of this note to trace the movement for, and to attempt an evaluation of, the so-called generalization of the obligations which certain states, members of the League, have assumed.

Type
International Affairs
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 28 , Issue 6 , December 1934 , pp. 1088 - 1098
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1934

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References

1 See below, p. 1095.

2 League of Nations, C. L. 110. 1927. I; Encyclopedia Britannica (14th ed.), “Minorities”; Geneva Special Studies, Sept., 1931; Stone, Julius, International Guarantees of Minorities Rights (London, 1932)Google Scholar; Bulletin International du Droit des Minorités (Sijthoff, Leiden, since May, 1931)Google Scholar.

3 Miller, David Hunter, Drafting of the Covenant, II, p. 91Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., II., pp. 129–130.

5 Miller, II, pp. 237.

6 Ibid., II, pp. 273–274, 307, 323–325, 387–392.

7 Citations in footnote 2.

8 Miller, , My Diary at the Conference of Paris, I, p. 82Google Scholar, and Doc. 188; XIII, passim; Temperley, H. W. V., History of the Peace Conference, V, pp. 129–133Google Scholar.

9 Ibid.

10 Temperley, V, pp. 432–437.

11 League of Nations, C. L. 110. 1927. I; Official Journal, 1921, 1161; 1922, 733–750, 1232–1237; 1923, 379–382, 1361–1363. Reichsgesetzblatt, 1922, II, p. 518 et sqq.Google Scholar

12 League of Nations, O. J., 1929, Special Supplement, No. 73, O. J., 1926, p. 286 et sqq. Article by Fouques-Duparc, in Revue de Droit International el de Législation Comparée, 1926, 3rd series, XII, pp. 509–524Google Scholar.

13 M. Mandelstam brought the question of generalization to the attention of the Institute as early as 1921. A committee was created to study the international protection of the rights of man, of citizens, and of minorities. As rapporteur, M. Mandel stam presented reports in 1925, 1928, and 1929. In this last year, upon introducing a draft convention embodying a declaration on the protection of the rights of man and of citizens, he stated that there was considerable opposition to the generalization of the obligation to protect minorities, and that consequently he had submitted to the committee the proposal of a declaration aiming at the protection of the rights of man which he thought every government could properly endorse. At the same time, he presented as a recommendation a draft convention for the protection of minorities. The declaration produced considerable discussion among the members of the Institute. After making some changes in the text as presented by the rapporteur, and after several members explained that they did not consider the declaration as of much value, the draft declaration was adopted by a vote of 45 to 1, with eleven abstentions. None of the English members supported it. Annuaire 1925, 246–392; 1928, 275–311; 1929, I, 715–732; II, 110–138.

14 See the minutes of the Sixth Committee of the Assembly, published as special supplements of the Official Journal. See particularly O. J., 1926, p. 286 et sqq.

15 Especially O. J., 1929, Special Supplement 73, p. 70; O. J., 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, Special Supplements 90, p. 115; 99, p. 14; 109, p. 33; 120, pp. 30–55, passim, respectively.

16 League of Nations, C. 8 M. 6. 1931. 1. pp. 240–242. Records of Third Assembly, Plenary, 37–107, passim. Minutes of Sixth Committee, 11–30.

17 O. J. 1926, 141–144; 138, 293. The above extract from the statement by the rapporteur is not quoted with approval, but merely as representative of the arguments which have been advanced against generalization, in addition to those used by Wilson and Clemenceau to justify the limited application of the régime.

18 See particularly, O. J. 1929, Special Supplement 73, German government's letter and statements by German delegate before committee. Also, Minutes of Sixth Committee, cited in footnote 15.

19 Ibid. and O. J. 1933, Special Supplement 120, pp. 42 and 44. In the German government's reply te the Allied and Associated Powers on the occasion of transmission of the peace treaty, during the Peace Conference, comment was made upon the provisions for the protection of minorites and the government expressed its intention to accord fair and impartial treatment to minorities in Germany. Miller, , Drafting of the Covenant, I, p. 548Google Scholar.

20 For a consideration of these proposed reforms, see the writer's note in this Review, Vol. 27, pp. 250–259 (Apr., 1933), and Stone, op. cit.

21 O. J. 1933, Special Supplement 120, pp. 22–25.

22 The Bernheim case. For a full account of this case, see O. J. July, 1933, pp. 833–849.

23 O. J. 1933, Special Supplement 120, p. 30 ff.

24 Ibid., p. 32 ff.

25 Ibid., pp. 28, 34–37.

26 Ibid., p. 48.

27 O. J. 1933, Special Supplement 120, pp. 59, 72.

28 Ibid. and O. J., 1933, Special Supplement 115, p. 88.

29 Citation in footnote 22 above.

30 O. J. 1933, Special Supplement 120, p. 29.

31 “Pending the bringing into force of a general and uniform system for the protection of minorities, my government finds itself compelled to refuse as from today all cooperation with international organizations in the matter of the application by Poland of a system of minority protection.” He explained to reporters that suspension, and not denunciation, of the treaty was intended. N.Y. Times, September 14, 1934.

32 Ibid., September 15, 1934.

33 Ibid. September 22, 1934.

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